FST-7 Big And Ripped Essentials: Upper Body

14 sep FST-7 Big And Ripped Essentials: Upper Body

Hany ”The Pro Creator” Rambod, legendary bodybuilding coach and mastermind of Olympia-caliber physiques, is known best for three letters: FST. They stand for ”fascial stretch training,” a lifting protocol which incorporates facial stretching into your workouts to increase blood flow, giving you a 3-D look with rounder, fuller muscle bellies.

In Phase 1 of Rambod’s FST-7: Big and Ripped program, he uses FST-7 sets at the end of the workout to increase blood flow and maximize muscle growth factors. For Phase 2, you’ll preload your muscles by using FST-7 at the beginning of the workout to enhance your intra-workout pump. Intermediate lifters can get all they can handle from just 4-5 FST-style sets. Advanced lifters can chase all seven.

Machines, free weights, barbells, and bodyweight are interchangeable when utilizing these training tips, so take the concepts you learn from each muscle group and apply them to whatever phase of training you are currently in to get big and ripped!

You’ll find one of these workouts on each week of the program, but bookmark this page to watch Rambod’s videos with three-time Physique Olympia champion Jeremy Buendia, or to review his best tips for each body part.

Triceps

When creating supersets, use different motions or grips. Hany’s choice is diamond push-ups paired with overhead rope extensions.

Make sure your hands are close on the diamond push-up to help put as much tension as possible on the triceps.

Use partials at the end of the overhead extension set. Throw in 3-5 extra partials to pump more blood into the muscles at the end for maximum tension and growth.

Turn your pinkies out on triceps overhead extensions to work the outer head of your triceps. Once you go to full failure with your pinkies out, do partial reps by going halfway through the rep without turning your pinkies out and keeping your wrists straight to fully exhaust the muscle.

Instead of flexing, starve the muscles of blood in between supersets by resting your arms overhead away from your heart. When you bring your arms back down, you’ll rapidly reintroduce blood and increase growth factors.

Flex your triceps after the final set to flood the muscles with blood. Flex one arm at a time, then both together.

Slow down and control the negative. Don’t go too fast, and don’t swing the weight. ”The most difficult thing in these movements is to not use momentum,” says Rambod. This is especially important during dips.

As with biceps, use height ladders. By bringing your arms together at different elevations, starting low at knee height and ending at eye level, ladder sets target every part of the chest. This is where a training partner is a no-brainer.

Open hands during flyes to get a better contraction, which leads to more muscle soreness and better growth.

Flex in between sets, using side chest pose and crab most muscular. Hold for 5-10 seconds to increase blood flow and get a more 3-D pump.

Use isolateral static holds. Hold one weight at shoulder height while performing a set of reps with the other side. Start at 5 reps on each side, then 4, 3, 2, 1. ”If you fatigue quickly, it’s OK to drop down more quickly,” says Rambod, ”you might have to do 5, 3, 1.” Start with a lighter weight if necessary to keep your form as strict as possible.

Maintain straight—but not fully locked out—arms, and pause to squeeze at the top. Do not use momentum! ”A little bit of body English is OK,” says Rambod, ”but if you really start to swing, you’ll increase your chances of injury.”

Use a rope on front raises to get full range of motion. To avoid stopping at the thighs, arch your back and tilt forward, keeping your core tight.

Once again, make use of ladders. Have your training partner direct you to hit their hands at various levels, such as waist, chest, or eye level.

Pose between exercises for more time under tension. This increases blood flow and time under tension for rounder, fuller delts. Recommended poses are crab most muscular, hands on hip most muscular, and side chest.

Know your hand position. To focus on lower lats, use a reverse grip—pulling with your ring finger and pinky all the way back to your waist. For the upper back, turn your hands and pull with your index finger.

Keep your arms out of the movement. When you pull with your arms, you tend to not contract any portion of the lat. Focus on the muscle you wish to work, and squeeze the scapula together to create extra flexion and more detail in the mid back.

To create more intensity, hold the peak-contraction position for 1-2 seconds on the last 2-3 reps of the set.

Once you hit failure, partials work great with both moves.

Control the negative. Letting the weight snap back without controlling the momentum increases the likelihood of injury and lets your arms do the work instead of your lats.

Flex between supersets for 5-10 seconds, pulling the lats out wide to increase blood flow. Practicing the front-lat spread and rear-lat spread help prepare you to naturally bring out you lats on stage.

Traps

Supersets aren’t necessary with traps. Just get on a machine or grab a pair of dumbbells and go to town.

If you’re trying to build your lower traps, tilt slightly forward. Lower traps give you more depth right above the rhomboid to bring out those back details in 3-D.

Do not roll your shoulders forward, as this puts more strain on your rotator cuff and your AC joint. Go straight up and straight down, squeezing for up to 5 seconds at the top on the last few reps.

Traps can grow with both weight and repetition, so there’s no need to overload this muscle group. Try not to go too heavy—Rambod recommends keeping it in the 10-15 rep range. Rather than adding weight, increase intensity by pausing 1-2 seconds at the top on the last 3 reps.

On your final set, complete 5 partial reps at the end to pump every bit of blood into the muscles before the final flex.

To pose the traps, hit the crab most muscular. This pose flexes the upper traps as it stretches the lower traps. Holding it for 5-10 seconds increases the already massive pump in your traps.